Col No.26 Forgiveness

You'd have your New Testament open or share with the person alongside you at Colossians in chapter 3. And I read from the 12th verse and I'm using the New International Version of the Bible. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. Now it's our policy here in the sanctuary on a Sunday morning to work our way through one of Paul's epistles, or at least it happens to be the occasion that it's a letter from Paul's epistles that we have been looking at for a long period of time now.

But it's my concern that if you're a visitor, you nonetheless go away realizing that what has been said applies to yourself and that one does not need to have had the last 25 Sunday mornings to comprehend this particular study. So let me set or let me spend just a moment or two setting into context the verse and the particular aspect of the 13th verse that I want to concentrate on for a little while. We have discovered in the preceding passage that in one sense one can liken the Christian life and particularly the entry into Christianity in the form of the taking off of one dress and the putting on of another.

We found in the 8th and the 10th verses, for instance, the metaphors of undressing and redressing employed. Paul was speaking to these dear Colossian people and he was reminding them of what they used to be like before they had trusted Jesus as Saviour. But he said, the day came in your experience when you gave your heart to the Lord and the Holy Spirit came into your personality and there were certain things that you used to indulge in which now abhorred you, had no attraction at all.

So you took those things off by the aid of God and you put on something far more superior in its place. You put on some of the characteristics that are listed in the 12th and 13th and 14th verses of this passage. And so I preached to you on the wardrobe of a Christian and I showed you what the garments are that you and I should be clad in, what our personalities should be like.

Do you recall how the whole thing is bound together, set off in relief in the 14th verse when we're told that the Christian wears the girdle, the belt of love which gives form and symmetry to the rest of the garb. But in going through a rather lengthy passage of scripture, there was one verse on which I only had time just to touch and I promised myself last Sunday morning that I would come back to it. And it's this 13th verse where reference is made to an important part of the Christian dress.

But there's also a qualification, a little reason that's tucked in there that really does require our attention if we're going to fully grasp the richness of the teaching that the apostle here denunciates. So he talks to Christian people and he enjoins them to forbear one another and forgive one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

What I want to do right now is to take out that word forgiveness, to investigate its biblical setting, to place it back in the context of this verse and then to move on and see the illustration from the life of Jesus that Paul uses and explore why he uses it. So with that word forgiveness in mind, we're going to look at the connotation it sustains and then placing it back within this verse, the contention it suggests and then finally the compulsion it supposes. The connotation it sustains.

Says the apostle Paul, Christian people are those who are to forgive one another. And there's hardly any word that really summarizes the whole of the gospel message and governs the lifestyle of the believer than that one word forgiveness. And if you go out to the sanctuary this morning with an understanding, a biblical grasp of what that name, what that word conveys, then you will be well on your way, if you're not of Christian at this time, to comprehending the gospel and by the grace of God as the word is applied to your circumstance, to entering into the born again community.

Now when you come across the word forgiveness in the New Testament, if you examine it carefully and you check with your concordance, you'll discover that there are two Greek words which sustain the one English word forgiveness. And I want to show you what those two words are and what they convey as we look at the connotation of this term. And the first word really, the first use of this word has the idea of sending away, sending away.

Do you remember last week when I just touched upon this verse for a moment, I said that you could trace the history of the word forgive by putting it back in Anglo-Saxon to forgive. If someone has done you a wrong and you decide that you're not going to retaliate, you have every right to legal redress but you're going to pass it by, in effect you forgive it. You give forth your justification to take the person up and put them in the dock and make them answerable for the crime that they have committed against you.

Now that's one of the ways in which the Bible uses the term forgiveness. It is to give forth, to lose, to forget about. Let's turn, for example, to Matthew's gospel and the ninth chapter.

And here you will find an illustration in which the Greek word has got that particular connotation. Jesus is moving into a situation where he's going to show his great authority. He stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town.

Some men brought to him a paralytic lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their fate, he said to the paralytic, take heart, son, your sins are forgiven. At this some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, this fellow is blaspheming.

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up and walk, but so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Then he said to the paralytic, get up, take your mat and go home. Jesus makes a comment, your sins are forgiven.

I'm sending them forth. I'm expelling them. I have the right to say that your sin no longer exists and that you are no longer accountable for them.

So that's one way in which the word forgiveness is used in the much richer Greek language, to send away. But then it's got another aspect. If you turn to Luke's Gospel and the seventh chapter, you'll find this connotation employed.

Luke's Gospel and chapter 7, verse 41. Jesus is putting up a parable. He says, there was a certain creditor which had two debtors.

The one owed 500 pence and the other 50. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? And the word there, forgave them both, has the idea of bestowing something upon.

So Jesus puts the question, whom did he bestow the greatest undeserved favor on? Here were these two men. One owed 500 pence and the other owed 50. Which was forgiven the most, says Jesus? Who was forgiven the most? Who had the most favor laid upon them? Now that's the other way you are to understand the word forgiveness in Scripture.

The connotation it sustains is twofold. There's the idea of sending away. The Lord Jesus Christ is faithful and just to forgive our sins, to send away our sins.

And also the Bible says, the Lord Jesus Christ bestows upon the one who has asked for sins to be forgiven tremendous favor. I wonder, do you know this yourself? Not just as some connotation of a word that you've come to grasp, more particularly this morning, but do you know the experience of your sins being forgiven? Well, if you do, then you are a Christian. And this particular verse from Paul's letter to the Colossians applies to you.

The apostle says, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against you, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. The apostle speaking of forgiveness in this epistle uses the second connotation at least three times in the opening chapters. Look at the 13th and the 14th verse of the first chapter.

Speaking of Jesus, the Lord Jesus has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. He has bestowed grace upon us because we have acknowledged his death upon the cross. Turn to the 13th verse of the next chapter.

You get exactly the same employment, the second use of the word forgiveness. You, Christian people, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses. Again, the idea is bestowing upon you grace.

So that's the thought the apostle introduces in this 13th verse of the third chapter. Have you got the connotation then which it sustains? The idea of Jesus expelling sin, sending it forth and replacing it by his grace with the merits of his death, therefore granting to you a forgiveness. But now let's look at the contention which it suggests.

Why does he use this particular word in the verse at which we're looking this morning? Well, he does it for two reasons. He has in mind, as you'll discover from the context, the general accord amongst Christian people. And then he's hinting at the possibility of a specific discord.

You remember from two Sundays ago, when we were looking at the first part of this chapter, how the apostle tells us of the manner of behaviour that is to exist, if you like, and I use this analogy, in the Christian college. He speaks of the Christians coming into a community which is headed up by the Lord Jesus Christ. We looked at the 11th verse and found that there was an international student body.

Do you remember? There's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free. But Jesus, he's the president. He's the one who controls the whole community.

And in that community, there is going to be unity. There's going to be an esprit de corps. There's going to be a sort of old boy attitude, one to another.

Or if you like, don't misunderstand me or take offence, an old girl attitude. We are going to show the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the reason why, changing the analogy, we moved from the college to the dressing room.

And we saw Christian people putting on these virtues, these characteristics, listed in the 12th verse through to the 14th, put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, sympathy, kindness, humility, and so on. What's the apostle concerned to do? Well, he's concerned to ensure that within the Christian community, there is a general accord. So he alights on this concept of forgiveness.

You people have had your sins forgiven. Jesus came along into your life one day and he sent forth the sin and the consequences of the sin which you had committed. And he covered it over.

He bestowed upon you his grace. And similarly, within the Christian community, if somebody offends you, then you are to forgive them. You're to send forth.

You're to give forth the offence as though it had never existed at all. And in so doing that, you'll reproduce something of the disposition of the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll capture in your lifestyle something of the benefits of the gospel.

So, you see, the reason why Paul introduces the concept of forgiveness in this 13th verse is because he's underlining his whole argument about unity and love and brotherliness within the Christian community. The general accord of Christians, that's what concerns him. But there's a little hint.

If you study this verse through in the immediate context carefully, there's a little hint that at Colossae there's about to break out an argument. These Colossaean Christians have enjoyed good fellowship. The apostle has commended them for so much they've been able to withstand.

You remember the pressures of the heretics and all the problems of living in a godless pagan world. But there's another difficulty that's looming on the horizon. Now hear me carefully because this isn't obvious and you have to put together certain verses of scripture to appreciate the difficulty.

The Christians at Colossae, according to the letter which Paul wrote to Philemon, were actually living or were actually gathering together in Philemon's house. He was a wealthy Christian and in those days obviously they didn't have beautiful churches like the one that we're meeting in, beautiful church buildings. Now Philemon, this rich Christian who had put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ some years ago, had amongst his household retinue a servant whose name was Onesimus.

Now Onesimus had absconded from home. He'd broken the law. He technically belonged to his life, his service was to be directed towards his owner Philemon.

But Onesimus had run away. Where did Onesimus go? Well following the drift in those days, the dropouts in that civilization, he made his way to Rome as all those type of people did, attracted as moths are to a lamp bulb when it's lit. And when Onesimus was in Rome, circumstances developed of which we know very little.

But they ultimately led Onesimus to have some contact with Paul, who though he is in prison is able to receive people who want spiritual help. And Onesimus, the runaway slave, listens to what Paul has to say about the gospel and he gives himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, when Paul writes this letter to the Colossians, with whom does he entrust it? Obviously he couldn't send it to the GPO.

Might never get there in any case if he did. He had got his own personal messenger. Look at the seventh verse of the fourth chapter.

Reference is made to a peculiarly named man called Tychicus. And Tychicus is going to bring this document, this letter, to the Christians at Colossae and they're going to read what the beloved Paul has to say. But who is going to tag along with Tychicus? Well, turn over to the ninth verse and there you will discover that Paul is sending back home Onesimus, the one who belonged to Philemon, in whose house the church at Colossae met and studied the Old Testament scriptures and worshipped the Lord.

So you see how the apostle labours in the ninth verse of the last chapter. What has happened to Onesimus? He's a faithful and a beloved brother. Who is, would you believe it you Christians at Colossae, would you Philemon really credit this? He's now one of you.

He's no longer a slave, at least not on the spiritual level. He's no longer to be disciplined by Philemon. He is to be accepted as a beloved brother.

One who, and there's a play on the name in the original, who was profitless has now become profitable. And so along with this letter to the Colossians, Paul writes also another personal letter called Philemon in the New Testament. And that personal letter obviously addressed to the leader of the church at Colossae, or at least the one in whose house the church gathered together.

He was to read it and listen to what the apostle had to say and to realise that he, Philemon, owed Paul a lot because he'd first heard the gospel at the hands of Paul. And more than this, when Onesimus returned to the Christian community and to his old household at Colossae, he was to be received with love, with favour, and with accord. So Paul, in this thirteenth verse, majoring on the idea of forgiveness, has a suspicion at the back of his mind that the tranquillity and the calm in Philemon's household might be disturbed because Philemon has right on the human level to sustain a quarrel with Onesimus.

But Paul says, no, forbear one another, forgive one another. If any man, any one of you in Colossae, any one of you in the household, including the man who owns that mansion himself, if any man have a quarrel against any other brother, then don't hold it against him. Send it forth.

Get it out of the system and receive this brother and forgive any other injury in the same way as Christ has forgiven you. So you see the reason, my friend, why at the beginning of our study this morning my argument had to be a little bit technical. We went into the Greek usage of the word forgive to expand upon what Philemon is to show towards Onesimus and by extension what you are to show to another brother or sister in the family of God who has offended you.

Forgiveness, the connotation it sustains, and as used in this context, the contention it suggests, and now quickly, the compulsion it supposes. Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. The New Testament will not allow at all the existence of that strange breed, a forgiveless Christian, that's putting two terms together to make a word that's not in the English language just to convey what Paul has in mind, a person who will not forgive.

He cannot possibly be in the Christian community. Why not? Well, you see, as Christ has forgiven me, so I forgive others. It's a very interesting point at this part of our meditation to moot over the thought that the Apostle Paul knew the Lord's Prayer with which we commenced our service this morning.

Forgive us our debts even as we forgive our debtors. You see, within the Christian framework, within Christian theology, systematic theology, theology which you must take into your own system, for that's what systematic theology really means if it's got any value at all, then the forgiveness that I have received from Jesus is not only placed within my mind, it's placed within my heart. And as he has forgiven, so I naturally, not out of pure force, but out of the compulsion of love, the love of Christ constraining me, I must forgive other people.

After all, it was my offenses which sent Jesus to the cross. I knotted the cord of the whip, and he bared his shoulder and took the punishment. My sin sharpened the nails, and he opened his palm and received the wound.

I placed myself under the penalty as a lawbreaker, and he took the curse, making it possible for me to become a child of God. There was a moment in my experience when Jesus of Nazareth came by, and he said to me, my son, your sins are forgiven. I send them forth.

I cover them over with my graciousness. I instill into the very fabric of your being my own spirit. How are people to know that the spirit of Jesus rests in me? Because I write a book on the ABC of theology, perish the thought.

Because I've immersed myself in the writings of the Puritans, not a bit, though that would be a very important and advantageous pursuit. But because within my character is evident to those who are outside the loving forgiveness which Jesus epitomized when he was on this earth. You see, my friend, in one sense, I was not straining the scripture in putting up the analogy of the Christian wardrobe last Sunday morning, or a fortnight ago when I spoke about the Christian college.

There are ways in which you identify a Christian, not just by the words that he speaks. The kingdom of God is not just talk. The kingdom of God moves into a person's lifestyle.

It transforms his very disposition, his personality. If it doesn't do that, then he's not a Christian. So I come back to my thought that systematic theology described and defined in the New Testament is theology you take into your system.

It's like the dear old lady who suffers from arthritis or rheumatism. Never quite knew the difference between those two. Perhaps I one day will find out as age catches up with me.

And she buys some liniment or some ointment. And the chemist has told her that if she rubs it into the joint, it'll give relief. But if she leaves it in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, then it will be no good.

Who wants an academic medicine? Who wants an academic theology? Who wants someone here just to talk about the love of Jesus? Unless that commodity isn't placed within the system so that it's seen in the lifestyle. My time's gone and I must conclude for I would not prohibit anyone coming from this table to this table as a result of the lack of time. But the point that burns in upon my mind and my heart and I leave with you before we go to the other side of the world during this next couple of days is this.

The Lord Jesus Christ's gospel can be reduced to the one word forgiveness. Almost the last comment that left the parched lips of the Savior as he was suspended there on the Roman gibbet was, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Now if to be forgiven is the root, forgiveness to one another is the flower.

If the fruit, if the root is not there, neither would the flower be there. And if we can't see the flower, then it indicates there's been no dynamic experience of the forgiveness of Jesus in the first instance. So then in that one word, forgiveness, the gospel is distilled.

Extend it and the word speaks about the sending forth of sin and the covering of sin with the grace of the Lord Jesus. And the word says that that resultant characteristic of forgiveness is to be seen within the Christian community so that there should never be a person in this tabernacle, hear me, young and old, never a person who harbors an unforgiving spirit, who has a grudge because that sours the soul, it stiffens spirituality and deadens it. But in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and the reflection of that forgiveness in our personalities is a quality which is recognized in heaven and makes earth that much more bearable to the glory of God.

Amen. And Father for the forgiveness you make possible through Jesus we thank you and may that forgiveness be evidenced in our own lives, in our dealings with one another, having taken of the root. Father may we show forth the flower.

Amen.